Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes against Syrian territory and affirmed Moscow’s commitment to respecting the integrity of Syria’s sovereignty. In the Israeli media, this is being interpreted as the latest part of the ongoing feud between Tel Aviv and Moscow.
“We strongly condemned the dangerous practice of Israeli strikes on Syrian territory,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated during a conference with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, this Tuesday. The latest Israeli airstrikes on Syria, were completely unprovoked and targeted areas in the coastal Tartous area. The strikes hit Syrian military facilities, killing three soldiers and injuring three others, also hitting in close proximity of Russian forces.
Occurring at around 8:50 PM (local time), on August 14, the strikes were launched from within Lebanese airspace, reportedly south-west of Lebanon’s capital Beirut. Although Israel has launched hundreds of unprovoked strikes against Syria, which have not received a single response from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) since 2018, this attack has been viewed as a message to not only Syria, but also Hezbollah at a time of immense tension between Beirut and Tel Aviv over the issue of maritime border demarcation.
Russian FM Lavrov’s statements have also been interpreted as an escalation in the rhetoric between Russia and Israel, a quarrel that has been building since the beginning of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. At first, Israel was hesitant to take a solid position on the Russian invasion, later siding with NATO’s position at the United Nations.
Sergey Lavrov in a statement earlier this year, tried to argue that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Jewish background, does not mean that there are no Neo Nazi’s in Ukraine, by saying that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood. The claim enraged Tel Aviv and caused an uproar around the Western world. Former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, later had a phone call with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in which Israel claimed Putin had apologized. There is, however, still a dispute as to whether Putin apologized or not, as the Russian account of the conversation never mentioned an apology, despite Western media going with the Israeli version of events. The only reason Israel may have been lying, was that claiming there had been an apology was the only way to cool down tensions.
After this, Russia accused Israel of backing neo-Nazi’s in Kyiv, which also escalated tensions, as Moscow seemed to indicate it was taking more issue with Israel’s routine attacks on Syria. Russian authorities also announced that they would be closing Israel’s quasi-governmental organization, the Jewish Agency, for violating Russian law, an investigation into the alleged crimes committed is still ongoing. Tel Aviv attempted to intervene on behalf of the Jewish Agency, but Moscow has not been having any of it so far.
On the issue of Syria, Moscow has indicated that it is seeking to work with regional powers Turkey and Iran, to bring about a diplomatic solution on the major issues that are in need of resolution, to end the war properly. Military exercises carried out recently by the Syrian Arab Army seem to indicate they are preparing for some future offensive to cross the Euphrates river and seize de-facto US controlled territory on the other side — where the Al-Omar oil fields are located.
More importantly, Moscow seems to be indicating that it will allow the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to begin using the S-300 air defense systems it sent to Syria back in 2018. Until now, only Russian forces have been allowed to operate these systems. In July, Israeli minister of war, Benny Gantz, stated that for the first time Russia had fired an S-300 missile at Israeli jets attacking Syria.
It has been long speculated in the Israeli media that Moscow and Tel Aviv have a mutual understanding regarding Israel’s routine and unprovoked strikes against Syrian territory. This argument claims that Russia coordinates with Israel on the strikes it is allowed to get away with in Syria. Others, however, disagree and believe that this is not the case and that Russia simply tolerates the strikes, not wanting to get in the way of Israel, but ensuring that Israel does not hit targets of high importance, especially areas where Russian forces are located.
Regardless of what the truth is, one thing is clear; since 2018, neither the Syrian government, nor Russia have done anything substantive to stop Tel Aviv’s constant attacks. Yet, as time goes on, the question still remains, will Israel go too far and provoke Moscow into teaching them a lesson in Syria? As things are going, it is becoming more of a possibility that there will be some sort of small response in the near future to Israeli attacks, if Israel does not manage to find a balance between its friends in Moscow and those in Washington. However, Israeli elections, scheduled for November, may dramatically change the current picture. Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that he would strike a more balanced approach should he be able to form a government, whereas the current Israeli PM, Yair Lapid, seems to be the favorite of the US government.
